BOOM ABSTRACT: The interface between intellectual property rights and competition
policy is one of the most important and difficult areas of EU
commercial law. The exploitation of exclusive rights can conflict with
competition law, which aims to preserve competition as the driving
force in efficient markets. These conflicts have to be resolved against
the background of a complicated relationship between EU law, national
laws and international treaties relating to intellectual property.
There have been major developments recently in this area, including the
new Technology Transfer Block Exemption, the Commission's Guidelines on
Technology Transfer, and cases such as IMS
and Microsoft
concerning the circumstances in which exploitation of intellectual property rights is an abuse of a dominant position.

This book contains a detailed explanation of the application of EU
competition law to all types of intellectual property, including recent
developments, and the resulting regulatory framework for the
exploitation and licensing of intellectual property rights. It has
practical analysis of such issues as technology transfer and pools,
research and development, and franchising and merchandising.